Mona Lisa Story 

 

 

 

 

 

• Mona Lisa, Leonardo’s Model Mona Lisa, or La Gioconda (La Joconde), is a 16th century oil painting on poplar wood by Leonardo da Vinci and is one of the most famous paintings in Western art history. Few other works of art are as romanticized, celebrated, or reproduced. It is owned by the French government and hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
  The Mona Lisa's mysterious smile has beguiled generations of viewers, and the true identity of the woman pictured in the portrait is not sure. Many believe the Mona Lisa to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. (Thus the Mona Lisa is known in Italy as La Gioconda.)
  Others have suggested the subject was a mistress of da Vinci, or even a self-portrait, with da Vinci imagining himself as a woman. It is known that Leonardo began the portrait in Florence in 1503, continued work on it through 1506, and then kept the painting until his death in 1519.
• History It is probable Leonardo began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503, and, according to Vasari, completed it four years later. Leonardo took the painting from Italy to France in 1516 when King François I invited the painter to work at the Clos Lucé near the king's castle in Amboise.
  The painting first resided in Fontainebleau, and later resided in the Palace of Versailles. After the French Revolution, it was moved to the Louvre. Napoleon I had it moved to his bedroom in the Tuileries Palace; later it was returned to the Louvre. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, it was moved from the Louvre to a hiding place elsewhere in France.
  The painting was not well-known until the mid-19th century, when artists of the emerging Symbolist movement began to appreciate it, and associated it with their ideas about feminine mystique. Critic Walter Pater, in his 1867 essay on Leonardo, expressed this view by describing the figure in the painting as a kind of mythic embodiment of eternal femininity, who is "older than the rocks among which she sits" and who "has been dead many times and learned the secrets of the grave".
• Theft The painting's increasing fame was further emphasised when it was stolen on August 21, 1911. The Louvre was closed for an entire week to aid in the investigation of the theft.
  On September 6, avant-garde French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be "burnt down", was arrested and put in jail on suspicion of the theft. His friend Pablo Picasso was brought in for questioning, but both were later released. At the time, the painting was believed lost forever.
  It turned out that Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia stole it simply by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet, and walking out with it hidden under his coat after the museum had closed. After keeping the painting in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to a Florence art dealer; it was exhibited all over Italy and returned to the Louvre in 1913.
• Identity of the model Vasari identified the subject to be the wife of socially prominent Francesco del Giocondo. It is known that del Giocondo, a wealthy silk merchant of Florence and a prominent government figure, lived. Until recently, little was known about his wife, Lisa Gherardini, except that she was born in 1479 and that she married Francesco del Giocondo in 1495.
  However the Italian scholar Giuseppe Pallanti published Mona Lisa Revealed. The true identity of Leonardo’s model (Skira, Milan 2006), a book in which he gathered archival evidence in support of the traditional identification of the model as Lisa Gherardini.
  According to Pallanti the evidence suggests that Leonardo's father was a friend of Lisa's husband. "The portrait of Mona Lisa, done when Lisa Gherardini was aged about 24, was probably commissioned by Leonardo's father himself for his friends as he is known to have done on at least one other occasion".
  Pallanti discovered that Lisa and Francesco had five children and that she outlived her husband. She lived at least into her 60s, though no record of her death was located. Most scholars now agree that she was indeed the model.
• Other suggestions Despite this theory, various alternatives to the traditional sitter have been proposed.
  During the last years of his life, Leonardo spoke of a portrait "of a certain Florentine lady done from life at the request of the magnificent Giuliano de' Medici." No evidence has been found that indicates a link between Lisa Gherardini and Giuliano de' Medici, but then the comment could instead refer to one of the two other portraits of women executed by da Vinci. A later anonymous statement created confusion when it linked the Mona Lisa to a portrait of Francesco del Giocondo himself – perhaps the origin of the controversial idea that it is the portrait of a man.
  Lillian Schwartz suggests that the Mona Lisa is actually a self-portrait. She supports this theory with the results of a digital analysis of the facial features of Leonardo's face and that of the famous painting. When flipping a self-portrait drawing by Leonardo and then merging that with an image of the Mona Lisa using a computer, the features of the faces align perfectly. Claims were made that Leonardo was homosexual and thus wanted to paint himself as a woman. Critics of this theory suggest that the similarities are due to both portraits being painted by the same person using the same style. Additionally, the drawing on which she based the comparison may not be a self-portrait.
  Maike Vogt-Lüerssen argues that the woman behind the famous smile is Isabella of Aragon, the Duchess of Milan. Leonardo was the court painter for the Duke Of Milan for 11 years. The pattern on Mona Lisa's dark green dress, Vogt-Lüerssen believes, indicates that she was a member of the house of Visconti-Sforza. Her theory is that the Mona Lisa was the first official portrait of the new Duchess of Milan, which requires that it was painted in spring or summer 1489 (and not 1503).
• Aesthetics Detail of the face, showing the subtle shading effect of sfumato, particularly in the shadows around the eyes. Mona Lisa is famous for her beautiful changing smile and eyes that continue to stare and follow you no matter in which direction you turn.
  The portrait presents the subject from just above the bust, with a distant landscape visible as a backdrop. Leonardo used a pyramid design to place the woman simply and calmly in the space of the painting. Her folded hands form the front corner of the pyramid. Her breast, neck, and face glow in the same light that softly models her hands.
  The light gives the variety of living surfaces an underlying geometry of spheres and circles, which includes the arc of her famous smile. Sigmund Freud interpreted the 'smile' as signifying Leonardo's erotic attraction to his dear mother; others have described it as both innocent and inviting. It is said by some that the painting is centered on the heart, as is illustrated in this version.
  Although utilizing a seemingly simple formula for portraiture, the expressive synthesis that Leonardo achieved between sitter and landscape has placed this work in the canon of the most popular and most analyzed paintings of all time. The sensuous curves of the woman's hair and clothing, created through sfumato are echoed in the undulating valleys and rivers behind her. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter's faint smile—reflects Leonardo's idea of the cosmic link connecting humanity and nature, making this painting an enduring record of Leonardo's vision and genius.
  The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her a vast landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge give only the slightest indications of human presence.
  The blurred outlines, graceful figure, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, and overall feeling of calm are characteristic of Leonardo's style. The painting was one of the first portraits to depict the sitter before an imaginary landscape. One interesting feature of the landscape is that it is uneven. The landscape to the left of the figure is noticeably lower than that to the right of her. This has led some critics to suggest that it was added later.
  The painting has been restored numerous times; X-ray examinations have shown that there are three versions of the Mona Lisa hidden under the present one. The thin poplar backing is beginning to show signs of deterioration at a higher rate than previously thought, causing concern from museum curators about the future of the painting.
• Role in popular culture and avant-garde art The Mona Lisa has acquired an iconic status in popular culture.
  In 1963, pop artist Andy Warhol started making colourful serigraph prints of the Mona Lisa. Warhol thus consecrated her as a modern icon, similar to Marilyn Monroe. At the same time, his use of a stencil process and crude colours implies a criticism of the debasement of aesthetic values in a society of mass production and mass consumption.
  Today the Mona Lisa is frequently reproduced, finding its way on to everything from carpets to mouse pads. As a cult painting, the Mona Lisa has enjoyed countless references in both popular culture and avant-garde art.
  The avant-garde art world has also taken note of the undeniable fact of the Mona Lisa's popularity. Because of the painting's overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential Dadaists, made a Mona Lisa parody by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and a goatee. According to Rhonda R. Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp's own face Salvador Dalí, famous for his pioneering surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954.

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